Birder’s journey touches down in Las Cruces

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Twenty-eight-year-old Michigan native Danny Bernard’s bright blue eyes twinkled as he spoke about his cross-country “People, Places, and Birds” journey.

In early 2025, Danny began his year-long tour through the Lower 48, living a spartan existence out of his Subaru Crosstrek. He’ll pursue at least 100 bird species in each state, although for a seasoned birder that’s not a particularly lofty target. As Bernard explained, he is seeking something far more profound: meaningful connections with people and places in birding communities across the country.
“Birding communities fascinate me. Birders are everywhere, and the majority are friendly and welcoming. There are so many different types: photographers, hard-core listers, backyard-only bird watchers, and everything in between. Some birders are social, others are loners—and then there is competitive birding. This all fascinates me.”

Using Facebook, Discord and personal recommendations, Danny reaches out to a state’s birding communities about a month before he lands there, looking for places and people he should know about. His post on the Birding New Mexico Facebook page garnered dozens of suggestions, and here in Las Cruces it got the attention of a Mesilla Valley Audubon Society member who reached out to Bernard and invited him to connect with the chapter.

This visit confirmed Bernard’s impression of New Mexico as having “remarkably diverse habitat plus the beauty and serenity of the desert. You never know what you’ll find. There were Mountain plovers in a fallow ag field in the middle of nowhere. The Mesilla Valley Audubon bird walk I joined was at this random little park that doesn’t look like much—but we found 43 species on a cold January morning.”

From Bernard’s perspective, New Mexico is the fifth best state for birding (after California, Texas, Arizona and Florida). However, he said there is tremendous opportunity for more professional bird guides in the state, especially those that live locally. And this is his post-journey plan: to return to Albuquerque at the end of his tour, find a part-time job and establish himself as a New Mexico bird guide.

His father, Daryl, is the executive director of Seven Ponds Nature Center in Dryden, Mich., and an avid lifelong birder. Still, Danny’s own path to birding was circuitous. Daryl had tried to get him interested in birds, but his response was always “Birds are lame.” Then Bernard accompanied his father to the Biggest Week in American Birding festival in Ohio for the celebrated warbler migration and his perspective changed: “I realized this was pretty cool.” 

Back in Michigan, father and soon again went birding and came upon a famously elusive American bittern standing not even five feet away. “That was my full-on spark bird,” Bernard recalled. 

Struggling with depression in subsequent years, Bernard said he benefitted from therapy as well as long walks, finding that unstructured time in the outdoors “made my problems go away, at least temporarily. … I realized how important time in nature is for mental health.”

His daily walks morphed into serious birding and, like his father, Danny Bernard became an unapologetic, competitive “lister”: a birder who keeps meticulous track of the species they’ve seen or heard.

“I am a stats and data person. I admire people who can go out to bird and not record every one they see, but that’s not me,” he said. That competitive nature helped Bernard break several Michigan county records and then the 2022 state of Michigan record for number of bird species seen (337 species—and 50,000 miles on his car).
Danny’s idea for a cross-country tour took shape in 2023 as he continued to ponder what he wanted to do with his life. He knew that whatever it was, it would have something to do with birds and birders, and he needed to take action. He saved his money, broke the news to his mom and began his quest in 2025.

Eyes still sparkling, Bernard said, “I’ll reach the end of year broke, but I’ll have had life-changing experiences. How many people travel the country for a full year doing what they love? There’s more to life than the same-old same-old.”

The tour continues, with updates on Danny Bernard’s adventures available at PeoplePlacesBirds.net. He plans to finish the journey in the Pacific Northwest in October.

People, Places, and Birds, birders, bird watchers, Danny Bernard

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